The Church of Scotland made headlines at its general assembly last weekend by backing — on a widely split vote — the appointment of a gay minister in Aberdeen, but the Presbyterian Church in Ireland will have other matters on its mind when it holds its own general assembly in Belfast from today.

Though undoubtedly there are gays in the Church, as in all walks of life, issues of sexuality have not been a preoccupation of Presbyterian's in recent times. This year a main focus of attention will be the troubled Presbyterian Mutual Society (PMS) in which large sums have been lost by nearly 10,000 investors.

The trouble began last autumn when the PMS experienced a run on its funds, following the Government guarantees in London and Dublin of savers’ bank deposits, up to a certain limit.

The PMS was not included in the Governments’ umbrella and, despite a concerted campaign by leading Presbyterian's, including the Moderator, the Rt Rev Dr Donald Patton, the Prime Minister and Treasury officials have not provided the protection required to help allay the PMS members fears.

Membership is restricted to Presbyterian's only, and a number of congregations have significant sums locked in the society. Many individuals have been affected by the lack of returns from their investments and a number of people are facing various degrees of loss or hardship.

Despite the campaigning and public comments, little has changed since last October.

The Administrator, Arthur Boyd, was due to ask members to vote this month on a detailed plan for an “orderly run-down”, but this has been delayed until the autumn because of the complexity of the society’s ‘loan book’ and the still-unresolved question of Government protection for savers.

The general assembly will hold a debate on the PMS tomorrow afternoon, but because the society and the Presbyterian church are separate legal entities, members may not be able to question technically the way in which the society carried out its business.

They will, however, be able to comment on how the Church has handled the matter and the vexed issue of the precise links between the Church and the society which share the same Presbyterian name.

Only delegates to the assembly will be able to speak or vote, though it is expected that other members will listen attentively to the debate from the public gallery.

It is difficult to know what members can do further at this stage to recoup their losses, but there is likely to be passionate comment about an issue which has caused pain as well as financial loss to many Presbyterian's.

Already an unprecedented protest by PMS savers has been organised outside Church House for this evening, prior to the start of the Assembly.

There are, of course, many other issues facing the Assembly, including the Church’s studied response to the controversial Eames-Bradley report on the Consultative Group on the Past and also its views on education, peace-making, youth issues and other matters. The Clerk of the General Assembly, the Rev Dr Donald Watts, is on record as saying that the last six months have been among the most difficult in the recent history of the Church.

Given such a background, it may not be an ‘untroubled’ General Assembly which will have to deal with several important topics, as well as others which may crop up during the proceedings.

Nevertheless, one crucial factor will be the tone of the debate over the PMS and this will be taken as indication of the Church’s ability to demonstrate ‘Christian charity’ at a time when recrimination and the ‘blame culture’ may be all too humanly tempting to those who have lost a great deal through no fault of their own.